Pace favors Morine's Victory

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - One way or another trainer Tony Dutrow plans to make his presence known this winter at Aqueduct.

"If I don't win enough to let everybody know I'm there, I'll cry enough to let everybody know I'm there," said Dutrow, who has 40 horses stabled in New York.

Dutrow, who has won at a 30 percent clip here the last two winters, will more than likely win his share again and looks live in Friday's featured $59,000 optional-claiming event with Morine's Victory. Six of the nine entered in the six-furlong dash - including Morine's Victory - are eligible to be claimed for $75,000. The other three are in for the third-level allowance condition. Dutrow also entered Pavo, but said he plans to scratch that horse.

Morine's Victory, a 6-year-old gelded son of Victory Gallop, has won 17 of 39 starts, including 3 of 6 this year. Scratches turned his last race into a match race with Bubba Gum, whom Morine's Victory whipped by 10 1/2 lengths in the slop at Delaware Park on Oct. 27.

"He really ran big that day," Dutrow said. "I know there was only one other horse, but Morine's Victory really showed up."

Prior to that, Morine's Victory finished fourth in an optional-claiming race at Delaware. Dutrow said that Morine's Victory came out of that race with an abscess in a hind foot.

"That probably had something to do with his performance that day," Dutrow said. "He was unusually way out of it that day."

The one edge Morine's Victory may have in Friday's evenly matched field is his ability to compete from off the pace. Many in the field are pure speed and it seems unlikely any of them will get loose on the lead. Morine's Victory breaks from post 8 under Ramon Dominguez, who rode two winners on Wednesday's inner-track card.

Unbridled Trust, drawn outside of Morine's Victory, will probably try to clear the field from his outside post. He won two allowance races at the Meadowlands impressively before finishing sixth of nine while being dueled into defeat in the $200,000 Select Stakes on the Breeders' Cup undercard at Monmouth. Unbridled Trust will find plenty of company on the front end from the likes of Mr. Umphrey, L'Argent, and Outcashem.

Other closers include Southern Missile, who won a race similar to this in Saratoga, and Callmetony, who has won 3 of his last 4 starts sprinting.